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Arizona Quail Hunting Log December 2006 Hunts: 01 December, 08 December, 15 December, 29 December 01 December 2006 - Near Nogales, Arizona
Pistol Pointing - Mearns Quail Country 9am - 45 degrees, 3pm - 66 degrees. We started out the day at the top of a canyon and worked our way down and the up another and didn't find a thing. But the day was still young. On our way back down from the top of the mountain after the end of the pretty long tree-less meadow Ice got birdie and I walked on top of a covey of about 20 Mearns Quail. Of course I didn't think there would be any birds so I wasn't ready and only got one bird. We searched around for singles and jumped 3, 2 of which were pointed by Zeus, but none of them flew by me and my buddy missed them. Ha (just thought I'd poke some more fun at you for your birthday). After that we headed back to the truck and headed to a new spot.
Mearns Feet - Made for Digging For our next stop we headed up a long canyon and worked our way long the bottom in the bead of the wash. I had Pistol out and my buddy had his 2 dogs both out. We worked up a bit the canyon a bit and after a short time I saw a bird fly about 30 yards out and then a covey of 20+ birds took off up the wash in the direction of my buddy. We headed in the direction we saw them and my buddy got one then there were about 5 bumped by a dog (not to mention any names...ha) and then I got one and we didn't see any more of those birds. Up the canyon a bit more Pistol went on point and while I saw a lot of digging I didn't see any birds so I released Pistol and about 15 yards up the little side canyon about 8-10 birds flushed up and then another 10-15 flushed after that and I got one of those too. We looked all over the mountain side to see if we could find some singles and NOTHING. They flew off in so many directions I guess we just didn't step in the right place. After that it was pretty warm and we headed back to the truck.
Pistol - Mearns Quail For our last stop we headed up a small canyon and then into another larger one. We came across a ton of sign (diggings made by those Rototiller feet on the Mearns Quail and the dogs kept going on point but they never produced any birds. As we moved on into the next canyon and down it a way there was some more soft points ect but still no birds. Then I came around and saw Pistol on point and she looked pretty serious. I walked around and nothing flushed up so I told her "okay" and she moved up about 5 feet and pointed hard again. This time I walked out in front of her a little farther and about 15 feet out a covey of 10-12 birds flushed up and I got 2 of them...I was ready this time. Terra retrieved one for me and Pistol go the other.
Pistol and I with 2 More Mearns Quail From there we headed back to the truck and headed home. In all we only saw one other group of hunters and that was good.
Mearns Quail In all we drove 8 hours, hunted about 6 hours and got into 4 different coveys. It was a very fun trip. Can't wait for more.
08 December 2006 - Near San Carlos, AZ
Pistol Pointing - Scaled Quail 8am - 37 degrees, 4pm - 64 degrees. Today was one of those hunts that gets people hooked on bird hunting and bird hunting with a dog. I took my brother Joe out for his first bird hunt with dogs and we had a blast. As we were driving to a place I wanted to try first (which we never made it to) we saw a covey of about 15 birds fly out in front of us (this is also how the day ended) and so we jumped out and took way to long to get ready and so we never saw those birds. Since we were already stopped and in a pretty good place we headed out after the little "blue streaks". The first 40 minutes (of our 4 hour walk) or so we didn't see a thing...and I was thinking this would be how the rest of the day might go, then I heard that first longed for shot ring out and I knew my brother was into birds.
Pistol Retrieving - Scaled Quail Pistol and I hustled over and helped Joe find the bird he shot. This was the first of many "man I love Pistol" that I heard from Joe as she retrieved downed birds for us. We went out after them, but only found one more single which busted up at Joes feet and he shot it.
Pistol Pointing - Scaled Quail From there we walked about 20 minutes more when all of the sudden Pistol went on point about 20 yards off to my left. Joe was way off on my right so I hustled over not wanting the birds to flee. When I got to Pistol I could see the ground moving all around as those little buggers ran all over the place and they did not want to fly. I chased up a few and missed 2 good shots and then I finally got one. By this time Joe had come over so I had Pistol find my bird and we went off looking for more. I'd seen at least 20 fly off and there was probably a great deal more that didn't fly. We got into a few singles, but let me say...from here on out the details are too many to attempt to go into.
Pistol Pointing - Scaled Quail Joe bumped one more covey of probably 30 plus birds that he walked past before the flushed in 3 waves and then Pistol pointed 4 more covey's and countless singles and groups of birds. It was awesome. Point after point, shot after shot. We had a great time and Pistol was on fire. At this point the conditions were on our side. There was a nice 4-7 mph wind that kept us cool and kept Pistol smelling away. As we headed back to the truck there was only about a 30 minutes of down time with the rest of the long walk being filled with pretty fun action.
Pistol Pointing - Scaled Quail
Pistol Pointing - Scaled Quail One time Pistol went on point and she was about 100 yards ahead of us. When I finally got about 30 yards from her a covey flushed out between us. Then when we were about 1/4 mile from the Jeep she pointed another covey this time about 50 yards out and so we started rushing in this time not wanting to get there before they all took off. I saw birds running off to Pistols right, but we didn't get there fast enough to get a covey flush. We worked around where we thought the might have gone and got one bird over a point. Then we headed back to where she was originally pointing and we had 4-5 more great single/group find by Pistol as well as a few wild flushes. It was a great time.
Pistol Retrieving - Scaled Quail
Scaled Quail Hunt
Pistol Licking Her Lips - Scaled Quail Hunt
Scaled Quail Hunt In all we ended up with 8 birds to me and 6 to Joe. I lost one and Joe lost two and I can't count how many we should have hit, but we both had 25 shells when we left the Jeep and Joe had 3 and I had 5 when we got back. Some times you can judge a trip by the number of birds, other times by the number of shells fired, but sometimes you get both. No matter what though, bird hunting with a bird dog and good friends is always the best.
From there we headed to a spot I'd been to twice, once each of the two previous years. I was hoping to get into some Gambles Quail and possibly even some Mearns Quail, but the farther back we got the more evident it was that that area had not received sufficient rain as it was pretty well decimated. Vegetation was poor and didn't look like it would be recovering anytime soon...unless it gets some much needed rain. Anyway, the real fun came when we were just about to our destination we came to a river crossing and the road had been completely washed out. There were huge boulders in place of the road and getting to the other side didn't look promising. Had I been alone or in my truck I would have turned back. But since I was in the Jeep and had someone else there to die with me, I figured I'd make the attempt. After traveling about 20 yards (in all about 100 yards to the other side) I got high-centered on one of the boulders afore mentioned. I was able to rock the Jeep off enough that Joe and I were able to move the bolder with all our force giving us about 2 inches of space between it and the Jeep. We built a bolder road between the tires and were able to drive over it. From there we cleared a sort of path as best we could and in all it took us about 35 minutes to go the entire 100 yards. Now that was FUN! I'll have a video posted soon.
Ice Retrieving Gambles Quail Once we were back on the road it was clear that no one had been on this side for quite some time. Possibly since I was there the 2nd to last weekend of the season last season. We moved on to my spot and didn't find any birds there (not surprisingly...even though there were a bunch the last 2 years). We walked for a bit and found 2 small 10- bird coveys and so we moved on. When we got back to the truck we heard a bird calling off in the other direction we had come and went off after them. There were about 15 birds and they flushed early so we didn't get any shots at the covey. We were only able to find a few singles and only shot this one that Ice retrieved. From there we didn't know where the road would take us...we only knew we weren't going back the way we came. When we finally found a main road again, and had driven about 5 miles the day ended pretty much like it began. A covey of Scaled Quail jumped over the road we got out, only this time much faster) and we were able to get into them, but missed the few shots we had and so we went home. Definitely one of those great days.
15 December 2006 - Near San Carlos, AZ
Early Morning Sunrise - San Carlos, AZ 8am - 27 degrees, 4pm - 74 degrees. Today I went out alone so I went out scouting some new country. I spend 8 hours driving and about 4 hours hunting. Not to eventful, so not much to write about. Took a few pictures though.
Pistol Pointing - Gambles Quail We drove for about 3 hours to the far Southeast portion of the reservation. I got out in a place that finally looked like good quail country, only it was way to steep for me to go walking around. I cut the dogs loose to get out of the truck and about 20 yards from the truck Pistol went on point. I didn't think she was for real but as I approached her (I had Copper my 6 month old pup on a lead rope so I was walking him in for a back) a covey of Gambles busted up out of the bush in front of her. Not what I expected. I got the dogs back to the truck, grabbed my gun and vest and took Pistol out in the direction the birds went. She pointed a double (in the bush in above picture) and I got one of them. We bumped a few more birds that were too far out of range to shoot. Because the terrain was so steep I decided not to keep looking for more moved on.
Iced Over Stream Ice and I got out in one area that looked like some good Mearns country but didn't find anything and the country quickly changed to not so good Mearns Country. I snapped this shot of an iced over stream. I saw a few of those today.
Turkeys I got a little lost and got up into the pine's. While driving I ran into a group of over 30 turkeys. I ran after them for about 100 yards trying to get them to fly but they just stayed out 20 yards out and I couldn't run much farther!
Big Turkey Foot (Not Mine) The Turkeys left prints all along the road and they had pretty large feet. It was fun seeing them and I drove out of the pines. From there I headed to a place I hoped to find birds.
Copper I found some pretty flat ground and so I took an hour to run my pup. Copper ran big as expected and we had a good time learning about the e-collar, learning how to run out front and finding out what Gambles Quail are like. While heading up a draw I walked right up on about 15 birds hunkered down in a cactus. Copper was about 100 yards out front and to my left so I brought him in and we bumped up one single but didn't find anything else. I ran him around and headed back to the truck.
Ice Retrieving Mearns Quail I headed deep into some country that is close to a spot I know where Mearns are known to be. I didn't have much time so I took out both dogs and we worked our way up the mountain side. We didn't see any sign for about 40 minutes and then all the sudden I started seeing sign all over. There were diggings all over the place. We worked the area and suddenly Ice went on point. I took one step in her direction and birds flew out all over from about 5 feet in front of me. I'd say there were 20-25 and they flew in every direction...some right at me which was quite exciting! I saw one fly out right in front of me and got it then looked around for more shots, but they were too fast and to far gone. Ice and Pistol both held until I told them to fetch and Ice found the bird. We looked for singles and found 3, but 2 were bumped by Ice and one flushed wild and I didn't really have any good shots. From there we headed back to the truck and headed home.
29 December 2006 - Southern Arizona
Snow - Mearns Quail Country 10am - 34 degrees, 5pm - 42 degrees. I headed out with one of my other brothers today in pursuit of some Mearns Quail. We were excited to do some hunting in the show, but only made one stop in the thick of it. It was a very pretty site and fun to walk in the snow, but the birds just weren't going to be moving around in that type of weather.
Blu Pointing - Mearns Quail Country After we had walked around for a bit we started heading up a canyon back towards the truck. About 100 yards up the canyon Blu, my brothers dog, went on point. I snapped the above shot then we moved in. Score 1 for Blu.
Mearns Quail Covey Sorry for the blurry picture, but this is what we found, a covey of about 8 birds roosting under a tree. They took off right as I snapped this picture and I dropped the camera and shot...missing of course. My brother also missed, so we moved on. Blu pointed on single which we think was the first bird to move from the covey and my brother shot it and Blu retrieved it.
Snake Trail - Mearns Quail Country From there we headed back to the truck. The above picture is a 2 inch wide trail made by a snake. It traveled about 20 yards from one stand of trees across a dry creek bed and up into another stand of trees and into the grass. Pretty neat. Snakes do move in the winter.
R.T Backing Pistol - Mearns Quail From there we moved on to some lower less snowy country and found a new place to hunt. We immediately saw bird sign about 100 yards from the truck, but it was about 30 minutes or more before we got into the first covey. Pistol pointed and R.T. backed. I snapped a few pictures and then walked in on a 12+ bird covey. Score 1 for Pistol. I shot 3 of them and my brother didn't hit any. Ha! (just teasing you) Unfortunately I didn't really knock down any of the birds hard so 2 of them were not found. Pistol and I gave a pretty good case to one, but were unable to find him after he fluttered to the other side of the canyon. While we were trying to find our downed birds my brother and R.T. moved up the hill a bit and R.T. found a covey then walked in about 5 feet and the flushed. My brother used this as a training exercise so he didn't shoot at them and the training worked. R.T. was ROCK SOLID on every find after that! Score 1 for R.T. We moved on.
Pistol Retrieving - Mearns Quail From there we moved over 2 canyons and started heading down, me on one side my brother on the other. As we moved down my brother yelled "point" and I came running. By the time I got there by brother had watched the birds move out in front of him (must have been at a snails pace) and pointed them out to me when I arrived. We quickly surmised that if they were to flush in there current position we wouldn't get a shot due to the low, thick trees so we decided to "herd" them into better shooting position. It worked. We got them down into the above opening and flushed them up. I shot one, my brother shot and missed so I shot that one, then he shot and missed another (man I love teasing him!) From there we moved on. Score 2 for R.T.
Owl We started walking along that side of the canyon where R.T. found the covey and all of the sudden my brother saw and owl. Then another and another and in all about 15 owls came out of a tree he had walked by. I snapped the above shot of one in flight. It was pretty cool to see so many owls flying off one at a time.
Pistol Backing R.T - Picture 1
R.T Pointing, Pistol Backing - Picture 2
From there we moved down the canyon and into a new one with a more open bottom. Within a short period of time R.T. went on point. Pistol backed and I got the first of the above 2 shots. My brother had just walked where R.T was looking so we weren't sure if there were birds there or not so I got in front of him and took another picture #2. Then we walked around a bit and didn't see anything so we released R.T. He moved up about 5 yards and stopped hard again. This time I could see the birds moving around in front him about 15 10 yards out and we went in for the flush. I shot one and once again my brother missed! It was a pretty large covey so we went looking for singles. After thinking they had given us the slip we moved on.
Pistol Pointing, R.T Backing - Mearns Quail As we headed back down the canyon Pistol went on point and looked pretty serious. Score 2 for Pistol. R.T. backed wonderfully. I snapped this shot and kicked around but didn't see anything. Then I took one more glance and saw...
Male and Female Mearns Quail This male and female blending in nicely to the ground cover. Since I had a few more birds in the back I let my brother do the shooting while I flushed the birds. He missed!!! Ha!
Mearns Quail - Shotgun - Dirty Jeep From there we moved on in search of the Jeep. About 100 yards from the Jeep we found a place about 100 square feet that was abounding in Mearns diggings. We didn't hunt around much but I'll definitely be going back. In all we found 5 coveys, 2 single finds, 4 birds for me, 1 for my brother and one heck of a great time!
My Brother With His Dogs ∞
November 2006 back to January 2007 |
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